This article describes some results of a research conducted in a
middle school first series class that analyzed individual and collective
construction of explanations for some phenomena related to food preservation,
identifying the voices that took part in the dialogues. Empiricist descriptions
and explanations predominated in the students’ initial answers. The students’
daily experience voices, their previous scholar knowledge, and the scientific
scholar discourse introduced by the teacher, took part in the elaboration
process of the explanations during the interactions in class. It was beyond the
empiricist phenomena observation. After the group discussion, the students
incorporated scientific discourse elements in their answers, and they could
elaborate theoretical explanations for the observed phenomena.